What Long Island Medium Can Teach Us About Grieving Families

No, this isn’t The Sixth Sense. Theresa is just a modern day Mom of two… who happens to connect with spirits on a level that you and I can’t.

On her show Long Island Medium, Theresa travels across the country to help grieving people communicate with their loved ones. Whether it’s at her home, the gym, a yogurt shop or even to her camera crew, Theresa feels spirit wherever she goes.

The first time I watched the show, I immediately saw a connection between what Theresa does and what funeral service is here to do.

No, we’re not magical and can’t talk to the dead, but we do help families through their grief, don’t we? While watching Theresa sit down with these people and transform their lives in just an hour, I felt so inspired, I had to take a few notes!

I’m no grief expert, but as someone involved in funeral service, here’s a few things I think we should admire about Theresa Caputo:

1. She gets people talking

The thing I love about Theresa is that she encourages a 2-way conversation during her readings.

Her readings are therapeutic because for one hour, the bereaved can talk about that loved one however they’d like. This is so important to someone who is grieving, especially after some time has passed after the loss. Many people feel that they can’t bring up their loved one after some time because it’s “beating a dead horse” (no pun intended).

My favorite times are when Theresa can get people laughing. It’s refreshing to see that with Theresa, you don’t always have to cry when remembering your loved one.

2. She explains that loss is just another part of life

Because Theresa communicates with the dead everyday, she sees death as just another cycle of life. And she has the ability to explain that to her clients. She even reinforces the idea of her client’s loved ones reuniting on the “other side”. While her approach is a little “wacky” and certainly not one anyone else should take, it’s interesting to see how even skeptics don’t fear death after a conversation with her.

3. She conveys the importance of moving on

In this reading, a young woman loses her father and begins to resent her mother for dating someone new. By connecting with her father, she learns that it’s OK to move on and love the person who has taken her father’s place. Theresa says, “I feel it’s important that you allow him to love you like you deserved to be loved by a father.”

Theresa was able to relay an important life lesson to this young woman through the power of spirit, and now this woman can walk away knowing that as long as her mother is happy, she can be happy.

4. She frees people from their guilt

In this specific example, a woman was diagnosed with stage 2 cancer and her friend was diagnosed with stage 1, but her friend quickly passed. This woman came to Theresa with feelings of guilt because she survived and her friend didn’t. Theresa helped this woman communicate with her friend, and her friend told her to remember the way she was before she got sick. The loved one instructs the woman to imagine herself with a suitcase at the bottom of her feet. In the suitcase, the departed asks the woman to put all of her feelings of guilt, negative emotions or burdens into the suitcase, and close it up.

This woman was able to forget about her feelings of grief, because she learned from her reading that her friend’s soul opted for a quality life over quantity. It’s messages like these that allow us to lift the feelings of guilt from our lives, and thanks to Theresa, this woman will no longer be stuck in that stage of grief.

5. She offers closure

There’s one thing in particular Theresa says that is SO simple, but provides the closure people need when they’ve lost someone. What is it? She simply says, “Your loved one just wants you to know that they’re at peace now” or “it was their soul’s path to cross to the other side at that time.” Without fail, every person who has a reading on Long Island Medium says “ I feel like I can move on with my life now.”

Sure, people may criticize Theresa for being a loud and wacky. And yes, connecting with the dead is a strange concept. But for Theresa to turn that power into a gift that changes people’s lives? That’s really something special.

What do you think about the show Long Island Medium? Do you think it provides valuable lessons to the funeral profession? Share your thoughts!